yea, ive done it before in this thread
If its not the same strain, and same lighting, it wont be much of a preview IMO. I have 2 strains in the same condition and one doesn't have roots as full in the pic i posted, strain has a lot to do with it.
Room30's HP Aero Cabinet
- Thread starter r0m30
- Start date
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
It would seem we have similar retirement plans lol... Yes, a UPS battery backup for a pc would be fine for a pump I'm pretty sure. They sell some nice ones at costco actually for around a hundred bucks. Well, an accumulator can last like a battery- it depends on how you size it and how much you're misting at the time. I use a 10 gallon accumulator, which is filled with quite a bit of air, but the remaining room will support my 8 nozzles for around a day or so. For another 50 bucks I could have bought a tank that would have lasted nearly a week, but I didn't have room for a 50 gallon tank. I guess you can think of the accumulator like a battery that stores nutes under whatever pressure you pump them up to. Between the battery, and accumulator, I can survive a pump failure for a day or so (depending on the level the tank's at when the pump dies) and probably a few weeks or even a month without electricity. If I sized my res larger, I could probably go months without intervening, except the nutes would not change strength without adding some sort of nute pump that perhaps I could adjust over the internet with my phone. It really wouldn't be that hard to make the jump to a fully automated system that would run from sprout to harvest with no intervention.
I would always like to have more failsafes in my grow room for sure. I'd like a few more so i myself don't fuck shit up as well. A pump going down would be equal to my forgetting to plugging it back in sometimes when i 'improve' areas. I've done it 2 or 3 times and always noticed the wilt before it got bad. I keep my grow room pretty cool which helps a lot when shit goes south, I can go 10 hours with lights on and i wouldn't kill them, wouldn't want to do it though. A 7000BTU AC dedicated to the 11'x12' room, and at night, this time of year, i pump in a little cool air from outside, i can hit 65f pretty easy at night with lights out, so if a pump went out then id be good till morning, and although i don't have to go into the room but for 2 weeks at a time i do check on them everyday I'm home, and i work from home, so ill never lose a crop, but future plans do include week long vacations in other hemispheres on a beach watching my ladies grow on my smart phoneso even though the power hasn't been interrupted where i live for years i will want to buy a battery backup at some point just for safety sake. I know those old ones to keep computers on will run those energy hogs a few hours, a few small pumps should be easy to backup for id guess over a day off a good one. How long does an acc buy you if the power or pump goes out?
From sprout to harvest would be hard, lot of change in size in my ladies tween that time,.. in a greenhouse sure, other wise you're dropping a lot of coin on generally placed lights indoors.
I've went on a vaca for a week before without a problem. I live in a pretty major metropolitan city, south west climate, so my powers never gotten interrupted, but with a battery backup a pump going down would really be the only thing i had to worry about. It'd be nice if a humidity sensor inside one of the buckets could reported the reading to my phone. But in the name of KISS, maybe just run 2 pumps where id normally use one, and have them each mist half as often, alternating use. That way it would take two pumps failing in order to lose a crop. With as long as I've used my 6800's, the odds of 2 failing while on vaca are real slim.
I've went on a vaca for a week before without a problem. I live in a pretty major metropolitan city, south west climate, so my powers never gotten interrupted, but with a battery backup a pump going down would really be the only thing i had to worry about. It'd be nice if a humidity sensor inside one of the buckets could reported the reading to my phone. But in the name of KISS, maybe just run 2 pumps where id normally use one, and have them each mist half as often, alternating use. That way it would take two pumps failing in order to lose a crop. With as long as I've used my 6800's, the odds of 2 failing while on vaca are real slim.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Well, with an accumulator, you could have 2 pumps supplying the fill to the tank, they would just recharge it twice as fast. If one were to fail, the other would still get the job done. Probably the best idea is to oversize the tank, they aren't really too expensive now that we've found good sources for them. I think for a couple hundred bucks, you could get a tank that only needs the pump to work once every couple weeks. Or as John guest on another forum (thc farmer) did, he got a higher pressure tank and a high pressure manual hydraulic hand pump and would hand pump his system every couple weeks- no electricity involved except for the timer and solenoids, which would easily run a long time off a car battery. That system could be used for guerrila growing in the forest somewhere... Just take the pump up to the site every once in a while and keep it going. What I love about this hobby is that there are so many ways to use your imagination and come up with new ways to do things. As for fully automated, Aerojunkie has some serious lightballasts on chains and motors that move themselves up as the plant grows. Just incorporate your large res and nute injectors and perhaps a webcam to keep an eye on things and I don't think it's completely rediculous to go fully automated.
Could you imagine someone dragging all the equipment for an HPA setup up to some remote local? You'd probably have to dig holes in the ground the size of 55 gallon drums, and drop drums in, just to support the massive roots sunlight and HPA would help to grow. Wouldn't be worth the effort less it was legal IMO. Someday when i own a greenhouse i want to combine the best of indoor and outdoor growing, HPA and the sun, and grow in at least 45gal garbage cans. I already do it a bit, well as much as i can in my condo. I live on the second story, so no one can see in the window in my grow room, which faces South, and gets 7 hours of sun light a day during the fall and winter months. I bought a 'Redi Shade Simple Fit Snow Blackout Cellular Window Shade', 63" x 72", cost me $190 (ouch) but its so fucking smooth. When home, i raise it at 8AM, and lower it at 3PM and for 7 hours nothing but the best light money can't buy tracks across my flowering ladies. Lights come on at 6:30AM, and stay on till 6:30pm though, but when the shade is pulled down, from outside no one can see a single bit of the massive amount of light in the room. If the HOA here would let me id put those skylight tubes too. Anyways, id like to automate the shades raising and lowering, hook it to a motor and a light sensing diode, and have it go up when the sun was out, and down when it got too dark out. I guess for $190 i could justify its purchase as the cheapest most effective light maker i own, lol
interesting factoid i just read while searching,..
"Breaking one gallon of water into 50 micron droplets will produce about 68 billion droplets of fog."
interesting factoid i just read while searching,..
"Breaking one gallon of water into 50 micron droplets will produce about 68 billion droplets of fog."
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
haha, sounds like something Atomizer would have known- he was great for that kind of stuff. Well, my setup is just as you describe, on the second floor deck, HPA.. Only issue is sunlight here is 12/12 year round being in the tropics, so I have to work on a solution for longer veg time. The gear for hpa fits nicely in a small deck bin in my setup, it wouldn't be too weird to drop somewhere- all I would need to do it remove the trickle charger for my battery, and add a 20 watt solar panel. Chamber depth is good, but after a certain point becomes somewhat of a moot point. The roots seem to grow to the bottom no matter what, and then climb up the walls if they have something to grab onto. Chamber space in general is good though, as long as the nozzles are able to get good coverage in all spots of the chamber. Somewhere in my thread, there's some pics of my rig- take a look around October's posts. I'm trying to figure out the best way to veg, cuz the light here otherwise is excellent for flowering. But for a few weeks, I either need to manually drop on a light hood to supplement the daylight and extra 6 hour or so, or perhaps have some sort of automated system on a timer or light sensor as you say. I'd want an enclosed hood that completely blocks off all light to the outside, so it's not conspicuous- but obviously have to deal with ventilation and heat buildup. Was thinking I could make a box type structure with no bottom, having some L-shaped venting ports with perhaps some pc fans, that I could just set ontop of my chamber at sunset, and take off in the mornings. Other ideas are to use my fogponic Dominaero setup for clone/veg, and then transfer to the hpa for flower. I'd hope the fog would make for an easy transition to HPA, but I know it's not ideal for long term growth- but it might just be perfect for cloning and a few weeks veg under some 18hrs cfl lights inside.
..found pics of the chest, where are the ladies? how are they getting natural sun, just outside all the time?
I just bought a Extech 445815 Humidity Meter with Alarm, it takes both readings via a probe, it also goes to 99% unlike some that just read "HIGH" if its over 70%. So I'm thinking ill be able to stick it inside a bucket and monitor my humidity, hopefully even set that alarm to let me know if shits ever getting dry for some reason..
..well see..
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Those pics were of my newly completed rig, hadn't used it as of then. Yes, My setup is outside on the deck as I said in the tropical sun here... I guess a humidity alarm could be useful, I'm interested to hear how long after a misting it goes off...found pics of the chest, where are the ladies? how are they getting natural sun, just outside all the time?
I just bought a Extech 445815 Humidity Meter with Alarm, it takes both readings via a probe, it also goes to 99% unlike some that just read "HIGH" if its over 70%. So I'm thinking ill be able to stick it inside a bucket and monitor my humidity, hopefully even set that alarm to let me know if shits ever getting dry for some reason..
acellular
Member
Couple of questions...
So what is the best tubing to use, JG or Pex? Is there a big cost difference between the two? Is Pex available in 1/4"?
What's the procedure on pre-charging the Accumulator? If your PSW380 is set to 100 lbs. do you pre-charge to 95 lbs. of air?
Can you use cheap plastic splitters/reducers instead of the JG connectors to keep cost down or can they not handle the pressure?
If you had 18 plants and 36 misters is one solenoid enough or do you need to split it into 2 solenoids each feeding 18 misters?
Any advantage to running 3/8" instead of 1/4" between the mister heads if runnning a lot of them?
Why does it seem impossible to find the PSW31000 to use 3/8" with 8800 pump?
So what is the best tubing to use, JG or Pex? Is there a big cost difference between the two? Is Pex available in 1/4"?
What's the procedure on pre-charging the Accumulator? If your PSW380 is set to 100 lbs. do you pre-charge to 95 lbs. of air?
Can you use cheap plastic splitters/reducers instead of the JG connectors to keep cost down or can they not handle the pressure?
If you had 18 plants and 36 misters is one solenoid enough or do you need to split it into 2 solenoids each feeding 18 misters?
Any advantage to running 3/8" instead of 1/4" between the mister heads if runnning a lot of them?
Why does it seem impossible to find the PSW31000 to use 3/8" with 8800 pump?
I think the concensus is to use the JG tubing, (the black is UV resistant) I haven't seen any 1/4 PEX but I think someone found it online somewhere
Pre-charge the accumulator 2 lbs below the cut-in pressure you have your diferential pressure switch set for, if the 100lbs is that cut in pressure then you would precharge to 98lbs.
If they are rated to take the pressure you can use them but the JG fittings are very reliable so you are less likely to have problems if you stick with them
Are you planning on using the buckets or some other type of chamber, a larger chamber should allow you to use fewer nozzles. I think you would probably need at least two solenoids with 36 misters but it depends on the complete setup.
Yes, I don't know the math behind the fluid dynamics but the people who do say it helps
The Aquatec pumps are primarily used in water filtering applications and those usually use 1/4" tubing, so they usually stock that size. We really aren't the target market they are going for
Mike Young
Well-Known Member
You can use barbed tees in 1/4 JG tubing to save some cash. I don't know how well this pic shows it, but the tubing just slides over the barb (with a little elbow grease) and is nearly impossible to pull apart.
Yes, I'm using them in my cloner with the .8 DIG misters you found. I wouldn't want to have used them when I was setting up, the JG connectors make it easy to re-plumb which is important when you are getting your setup put together for the first time. If you were building multiple chambers then once you got the design dialed in using the barbed connectors for the rest of the chambers would work well.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Agree with r0m. I'll add you need to understand how crisp your cycles need to be and why. Ideal situation is a solenoid per nozzle just a couple inches away max so you don't get mist run-on. You can use 3/8 tubing after the accumulator and it won't matter what size the pump's outlet is because the flow comes from the accumulator and the pump can just slowly charge it. I'll add that a single large chamber is also much more ideal due to the mist needing airspace to expand and mix before striking the chamber walls or roots. Very important to read more and understand the basic underlying principles before you blow a bunch of money on a setup that won't work any better than a cheap sprinkler "soakponic" setup... CheersI think the concensus is to use the JG tubing, (the black is UV resistant) I haven't seen any 1/4 PEX but I think someone found it online somewhere
Pre-charge the accumulator 2 lbs below the cut-in pressure you have your diferential pressure switch set for, if the 100lbs is that cut in pressure then you would precharge to 98lbs.
If they are rated to take the pressure you can use them but the JG fittings are very reliable so you are less likely to have problems if you stick with them
Are you planning on using the buckets or some other type of chamber, a larger chamber should allow you to use fewer nozzles. I think you would probably need at least two solenoids with 36 misters but it depends on the complete setup.
Yes, I don't know the math behind the fluid dynamics but the people who do say it helps
The Aquatec pumps are primarily used in water filtering applications and those usually use 1/4" tubing, so they usually stock that size. We really aren't the target market they are going for
How the hell did I miss this thread? I seriously have to start working on my attention deficit disorder...
Love the setup r0m30! Great job
I always thought about HP systems as using a larger amount of space due to all the equipment involved and your set-up totally changed my view on that. I really like the way you packed everything in nice and tight, super clean!
Love the setup r0m30! Great job
I always thought about HP systems as using a larger amount of space due to all the equipment involved and your set-up totally changed my view on that. I really like the way you packed everything in nice and tight, super clean!
Thanks, I think it was Mike Young who described it as a giant PC case grow. I liked that description.Love the setup r0m30! Great job